Movie Review: Heropanti

Heropanti is a remake of a 2008 Allu Arjun film called Parugu. The Hindi remake remains faithful to its Telugu original in every frame and perhaps that’s it Achilles’ heel. A deviation in the treatment and narrative would have made it a better film.

Kriti Sanon’s elder sister runs away on the day of her marriage. Now, their father Prakash Raj is a Haryanvi don of sorts, so the whole of Jatland is after the blood of the daughter and her lover. The goons pick up Tiger and his two friends and rough them up in the hope that they would cough up the couple’s location. Now, an extremely resourceful Tiger who for some strange reason is called Bablu in the film could have escaped all along but for the fact that a) he catches a glimpse of the girl he has fallen for in the village and b) she turns out to be the runaway bride’s younger sister. Bablu has been helping the couple all along and now his task is to take the pursuers on a wild goose chase and run away with the younger sister himself...

The above storyline may look like an ideal case scenario for cat and mouse situations but that isn’t the case. What follows is mostly Prakash Raj going all mushy. Now, nothing wrong in that. He is a fabulous actor and carries the emotional anchor of the film on his sturdy shoulders. The problem is that the film is called Heropanti and not Father Of The Bride.

It's good to see Tiger and Prakash bonding and the younger actor getting to learn what emoting is about in the process but we would have loved to see him kick some butt instead. Because he’s a trained gymnast, parkour artiste and martial arts expert and excels in situations that allow him to combine his various talents. Less talk, more stylised action should have been the rule to follow. And somebody apparently told Kriti that the way to good acting is through a good cry. So she lets go with gay abandon every five minutes while grinning like Miss World the rest of the time. The pretty actress needs to tone down both and just be herself.

Tiger can punch and dance like the best of them and isn’t a bad actor either. His debut would have been more impressive if they had played up his strengths in a better way. He makes a sincere effort to win his audience over and let’s hope he gets better films focussing on his core strengths in future.